Data and Evidence for Preventing Violence Against Women and Children

Preventing violence against women and children requires more than awareness campaigns or responses after violence has occurred. Effective prevention depends on understanding where risks exist, who is most exposed, what factors contribute to vulnerability, which protection mechanisms already exist and where important gaps remain.

Reliable data and evidence can help governments, civil society organizations, researchers and development partners move from general assumptions toward targeted prevention strategies.

Data can help identify:

Major forms of violence

Groups and communities facing greater risks

Social and economic factors associated with vulnerability

Geographical areas where protection services are limited

Barriers to reporting and accessing assistance

Existing prevention and protection mechanisms

Gaps in institutional coordination

However, collecting information about violence requires particular care. Data collection must protect privacy, dignity and safety, especially when it involves children or survivors of violence.

4.1 Understanding the Local Context

Violence does not occur in the same way in every community.

Economic conditions, social norms, access to education, employment opportunities, public services and institutional capacity can influence the risks faced by women and children.

Research should therefore begin by understanding the local context.

Important questions include:

What forms of violence are most concerning?

Which groups may face particular vulnerabilities?

Where can women and children seek help?

Are services accessible geographically and economically?

Do communities know how and where to report concerns?

What prevents victims or survivors from seeking assistance?

A local evidence base can help transform these questions into practical prevention priorities.

4.2 Data Sources

Evidence can come from different sources.

These may include administrative data, service-provider records, research studies, community consultations, surveys, interviews, school information and other appropriately collected sources.

No single source provides a complete picture.

For example, official reporting data may reveal cases that reach institutions but may not capture violence that remains unreported.

Community research can help identify perceptions and barriers, while service mapping can reveal whether appropriate assistance is actually available.

Combining different forms of evidence can therefore provide a more complete understanding of protection needs.

4.3 The Problem of Underreporting

One of the major challenges in researching violence is that many incidents may never be formally reported.

Women or children may remain silent because of fear, stigma, dependence, lack of information, social pressure or concerns about possible consequences.

Consequently, low numbers of reported cases should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that violence is uncommon.

Research must distinguish between:

Reported cases

Identified cases

Available service data

Community perceptions

Potentially hidden risks

This distinction is essential when interpreting evidence.

4.4 Data Collection and Ethical Protection

Research involving violence against women and children requires strong ethical standards.

Researchers must avoid exposing participants to additional risks.

Personal information should be protected and collected only when necessary for a legitimate research purpose.

Children require particularly strong safeguarding measures.

Research should never pressure a child to disclose traumatic experiences merely for the purpose of collecting information.

The principle should be:

Collect the evidence necessary to improve protection without creating new risks for those being studied.

4.5 Mapping Protection Services

Data should not focus only on violence.

It should also examine the capacity of the protection system.

A protection-service mapping exercise can identify:

Health services

Psychosocial support

Social services

Legal assistance

Child protection mechanisms

Women’s support organizations

Emergency and referral mechanisms

Community-based resources

Mapping these services can reveal geographical and institutional gaps.

This is particularly important in rural and underserved communities where specialized services may be distant or difficult to access.

4.6 Community-Level Evidence

Local communities can provide important information about risks and possible solutions.

Community consultations can help researchers understand:

Local perceptions of violence

Barriers to seeking assistance

Knowledge of available services

Attitudes toward prevention

Specific challenges affecting women and children

Existing community protection resources

Community participation should, however, be conducted safely and ethically.

The objective is not to expose individual victims or survivors, but to understand broader patterns, risks and protection needs.

4.7 From Data to Prevention

Data has value only when it contributes to better decisions.

The process should therefore move from evidence toward action:

Data → Analysis → Risk Identification → Priority → Prevention → Monitoring → Learning

Research can identify a problem.

Analysis can explain its possible causes.

Stakeholder consultation can identify feasible responses.

Projects can then be designed around clearly established priorities.

Monitoring can determine whether those interventions are producing meaningful improvements.

4.8 Evidence-Based Prevention Strategies

Prevention strategies should correspond to the risks identified through research.

Depending on the context, interventions may include awareness and education, strengthening family support, improving access to services, training professionals, strengthening referral mechanisms, supporting schools and communities, improving institutional coordination and addressing social and economic vulnerabilities.

The objective is not simply to increase the number of activities.

The objective is to reduce risks and strengthen protective environments.

4.9 Monitoring and Evaluation

Prevention programmes require appropriate monitoring.

Indicators may examine:

Awareness of available services

Accessibility of protection mechanisms

Referral capacity

Institutional coordination

Professional capacity

Community participation

School retention and safety

Access to support services

Quantitative indicators can show changes over time, while qualitative evidence can help explain how women, children, families and communities experience those changes.

Evaluation should therefore combine different forms of evidence whenever appropriate.

4.10 The Role of Research Organizations and Civil Society

Research organizations and civil society groups can contribute significantly by conducting needs assessments, documenting local challenges, mapping services, producing evidence-based reports and communicating findings to decision-makers.

Their role should not replace specialized protection institutions.

Instead, research and civil society can help strengthen the evidence base upon which institutions and development partners make decisions.

4.11 ATEP MED Research Perspective

The Arab Digital Center for Media and Development (ATEP MED) can contribute to this field through:

Needs assessments

Community research

Data and evidence analysis

Protection-service mapping

Field studies

Policy analysis

Research and development reports

Evidence-based communication

Monitoring and evaluation

A regional study, for example, could examine the risks affecting women and children in vulnerable communities, identify barriers to protection services and document existing local resources.

The results could then be transformed into a research report containing:

Evidence → Analysis → Protection Gaps → Recommendations → Practical Solutions

Such work can provide useful evidence for local institutions, civil society organizations and development partners seeking to strengthen prevention and protection systems.

4.12 The Central Principle

The purpose of data is not to produce statistics for their own sake.

Its purpose is to understand risks, improve decisions, strengthen prevention and ultimately create safer environments for women and children.

The central pathway is:

Understand the risks.

Collect responsible evidence.

Protect privacy and dignity.

Identify the gaps.

Design targeted prevention.

Strengthen protection systems.

Measure results.

Learn and improve.

Reliable evidence can therefore become one of the foundations of effective violence prevention.

Better evidence leads to better decisions; better decisions can lead to stronger prevention and safer communities.